Gros Point

Information

Gros point needle lace is a lace with raised, and decorated cordonettes. It is supposed to look like carved ivory. For those who want to learn it or to study the details of its construction in antique examples. Historical antique form was called Venetian gros point needle lace.

Last night I picked up a sampler I started nearly 2 years ago. It has been nearly that long since I last worked on it. It was supposed to be a sampler of gros point stitches. So I was devoured by an…Continue

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Thank you very much for the identification and the comments. I'm more familiar with antique bobbin lace than I am with needlelace, especially the Gros Point group of laces, but I'm not convinced yet either way about the age of the piece. On one hand, it doesn't appear to have been used and it has definitely neven been washed. It's not limp enough or "pulled in" enough to have ever been washed. Plus I can see tiny pieces of the thread that held the piece to the backing material as it was being worked. This "freshness" makes it feel like 19th century to me.

On the other hand, it is a length (almost 18") cut at both ends, so from a longer length. There are damaged areas along the footside (if you use that term for straight needlelaces?) and one spot along the footside that appears to have been loosely mended with sewing thread. You can see from the penny how detailed the design is--from even a short distance it looks much more homogenous than the larger Gros Point that I thought was what was typically done as the 19th century "copies". The overall effect to me is much more like the 16th C bobbin laces. The color is a darker tan than it appears in the photos, about the color of a "blonde" wood such as ash or birch--it looks like darkening from age to me.

So I guess I'm leaning towards a very well preserved, never washed, older piece (mostly on the "feel" of the design and scale), but I also realize that could easily be a bad case of wishful thinking!

I don't think it is very old either. 19th century, is my gut feeling.
However - it is a beaut piece of lace. Lucky you, Nancy!

I understood that in the 17th century, when Gros Point was at its peak, the Spanish tried to copy it, but they did the "worms"not the "crescents". I saw, in a museum, a piece that was bobbin lace tapes with the needlelace cordonettes stitched on, so from a distance, it looked like Gros Point!!!
These days the term Gros Point is often used for all these raised laces - Gros Point, Rose Point, etc. (I am bad at using it to cover all these laces, I know!) But then we come back to terminology - Rose point, - some think it means the smaller designs, some say it means Raised point, etc.!! Here we go again!!!!!! :) But I agree with Rochelle, I, too would call this piece Rose Point. However it is one of the plainer rose points. Some have extraordinary embellishments!

This is Rose point, and I am really excited to see it because it is a very unappreciated lace and one of my favourites. I will be studying these photos carefully. How old I can't say without feeling and looking at it. It is not one of the 'copies' that came later in history.

One reason I think this is not that old is that the padded parts don't vary in thickness. Each one is a consistent thickness for its whole circuit. The really old stuff would have a ring or crescent very thick on one segment, but not so much on the other half.

I've just uploaded four photos of a piece of antique lace I bought recently. Both and the seller are quite uncertain about its age. It "feels" old, is made of linen, but is very fine--much smaller scale than I associate with historical Gro Pointe. I wondered what members thought about the possible age and origin of this piece? Thanks.

the photo is of a pendant I made some years ago.
I hope some others will share some photos and comments about this "queen of needle laces".
It is the most fun to work, as it leaves so much to the imagination with regards to the embellishments.